[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 40 (Tuesday, April 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI'S OTTO G. RICHTER LIBRARY'S CUBAN COLLECTION HELPS 
                        KEEP ALIVE CUBAN HISTORY

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                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 1997

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, two of the many freedoms suppressed by 
the Castro dictatorship over its 37 years of totalitarian rule have 
been academic and intellectual freedom that once were a source of great 
pride in a democratic Cuba. All books that the Castro regime considered 
against its interests were systematically banned, all individuals who 
supported ideas other than the ones the dictatorship favored were 
exiled, harassed, incarcerated, or murdered.
  Fortunately, many of the great books of Cuban history and 
publications of Cuban writers and intellectuals are now being preserved 
in the United States at the Cuban Collection of the University of 
Miami's Otto G. Richter Library. The Cuban Collection at the University 
of Miami is the largest collection of its kind outside of Cuba, 
superseding even the collection at the Library of Congress.
  The awesome collection contains materials from all periods of Cuba's 
history and attracts thousands of researchers every year from all parts 
of the world. Some of its unique holdings include an 1895 photograph of 
Cuban Mambises who fought for Cuba's independence from Spain, miniature 
letters from Cuban political prisoners, and copies dating from 1832 of 
Diario de la Marina, the oldest newspaper in Cuba and the Americas 
until its operation was forcefully shut down by the Castro 
dictatorship.
  South Florida is proud to have among its many assets this outstanding 
collection that helps keep alive Cuba's history through this dark 
period of repression that has engulfed the island.

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